As night fell, dozens of people spread newspapers and scraps of cardboard on the street for evening prayers

Food was being distributed, crates of bananas, boiled eggs and bread.
Lubna Abdel-Munim, 50, accompanied by her two daughters and son, distributed homemade tuna and roast-beef sandwiches from a plastic bag.

A bearded man who would only give his first name — Abdul-Halim — came with his daughter Hind, 6.

Ahmed Hussein, 43, the sales manager for a cosmetics company, left work at midday to join protesters

“No one is working,” he said, adding that his boss didn’t mind. “Everyone is obsessed with this.”